Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Trump Can't Stop Lying

Our new Dear Leader is a pathological liar, and while meeting with congressional leaders yesterday he repeated the nonsense claim that millions of "illegals" voting are the only reason he could have lost the popular vote as he did in November.

In his first meeting with congressional leaders of both parties since taking office, President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated a debunked claim that he lost the national popular vote only because of widespread voter fraud.

Multiple sources described the exchange as part of a generally lighthearted meet-and-greet between Trump and the lawmakers at the White House. It’s unclear whether any of the leaders responded to Trump.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) confirmed that Trump made the voter fraud claim, but added, "I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. I was ready to move onto some policy issues. I didn't anticipate that discussion."

It's further evidence of Trump’s fixation with his narrow victory, in which he won the Electoral College handily despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. Nearly three weeks after his Election Day victory, as late California returns drove up Clinton’s popular vote margin, Trump tweeted incorrectly about the size of his victory.

“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” he wrote.

He’s provided no evidence to back up that claim, and multiple fact checks and investigations have called the assertion false.

Trump's aides did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.

Let me say this again for the folks in the cheap seats: Donald Trump is a pathological liar.   News outlets need to describe him as such, and they are starting to do a better job of that. 

The NY Times headline on this story is pretty simple, Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers. The WaPo headline, not quote as strong but still Without evidence, Trump tells lawmakers 3 million to 5 million illegal ballots cost him the popular vote. CNN's headline is nearly identical to WaPo's, FOX simply says that Trump made the claim about "illegals" and barely bothers to say the claims are unverified in the second paragraph.

But the problem is still the fact that Trump is spouting lies to cover his ego, a bad quality in a business leader, but a potentially disastrous one in a US President.

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